When working in an office or a work place having limited work space, it is necessary to store articles such as printing negatives on a flat while making printing plates or masters. However, the storage system of this invention is capable of being used in any arrangement which requires the systematized compilation or assembly of individual units forming part of a set that is not to be mixed or confused with other sets involving different orders.
In work areas having relatively small space for work, the amount of work that can be done is limited by the access areas available for loading work pieces onto the shelves of a storage system or bin. It would be desirable to utilize the available space in a work area more efficiently by enabling two people to work on a single storage system or bin without having the work of one person interfere with that of the other. It would also be desirable to enable two people to work on opposite sides of the storage system or bin and have ready access to the shelves oriented in such a manner that each operator working on each side of the storage system or bin can readily observe what is located on each individual shelf of the side of the storage system or bin without disturbing the operator working on its opposite side.
As will be evident from a discussion of prior art and patents that were discovered during a novelty search for this invention, the prior art failed to provide as efficient an operation as the present invention provides. The following patents are called to the attention of the Examiner to indicate the inventor's knowledge of the state of the art at the time the applicant executed the present application.
U.S. Pat. No. 721,532 to Baron, issued Feb. 24, 1903, shows a music cabinet for storing sheet music. A number of vertically spaced horizontally oriented shelves is provided from a continuous strip of fabric. The strip of fabric constitutes two series of shelves closed at one side, those of each series opening on the side of the frame at which the others are closed. Unless the horizontal shelves are widely spaced from one another by having relatively thick rollers horizontally disposed and mounted at their ends in support posts for the cabinet, it is difficult for a person operating with sheet material to observe what sheet material is stored on any of the shelves. It would be beneficial if the field of view for each worker working on opposite sides of the cabinet could be improved.
U.S. Pat. No. 725,851 to Kopp, issued Apr. 21, 1903, discloses a bread or cake rack comprising a series of vertically spaced supports. Each of the supports comprises a pair of shelves that slope toward one another in an inward downward direction. This inward and downward slope prevents the breads or cakes stored on the rack from tending to fall off the rack when the rack is moved from place to place.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,368,192 to Olmstead, patented Feb. 8, 1921, shows a music roll cabinet comprising a series of racks, each consisting of a single piece of metal in the nature of a flat plate or body and formed between its ends to provide an upstanding stop flange or rest in the nature of a rib extending entirely across the plate. The racks are parallel to one another and arranged at an angle to the horizontal so that the stop flange or rest is at the lower longitudinal side edge of each rack.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,700,976 to Bulman, issued Feb. 5, 1929, shows a display rack for holding merchandise or other articles in either a horizontal or inclined position. The trays may be carried either in a horizontal plane parallel to the horizontal planes of the other trays or in downward and inwardly inclined position to prevent the articles from falling off the display rack when the latter is moved.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,752,699 to Ross, issued Apr. 1, 1930, shows a combination shoe and hosiery stand. This stand comprises shelves obliquely and downwardly disposed in parallelism within a cabinet and adapted to dispose their innermost ends for contacting engagement with work pieces in the manner shown in FIG. 4 of the drawings.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,787,552 to Rice, issued Jan. 6, 1931 shows a filing cabinet adapted for filing tickets or the like. The cabinet comprises shelves composed of metal, rubber, wood or other suitable material and the shelves form parts of compartments having two stop members at the opposite openings of each compartment. The stop members are constructed and arranged in such a manner that when one stop member of a pair is moved to a non-obstructing position, the opposite stop member is moved into an obstructing position. Therefore, the compartment has an opening at one end or the other end and a closed end opposite the open end, so that regardless of which end is chosen to be open, the opposite end is automatically closed when the first end is opened.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,992,106 to Wee, issued Feb. 19, 1935, shows a meat rack having trays so mounted thereon that they may be easily and quickly loaded and unloaded without removing the trays from the rack. The trays are also capable of being removed entirely from the rack when so desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,465,897 to Schumann et al., issued Sept. 9, 1969, shows a storage arrangement in which a rack having spaced opposite sides supports a plurality of vertically superimposed pallets, each of which is movable independently of the others between a central position in which it is located wholly within the compartments of the rack and two end positions in each of which it extends partially beyond one or the other of the opposite sides of the rack.
It will be obvious from a study of these patents which represent the prior art that no patent teaches the use of vertically aligned shelves, vertically adjacent of which extend traversely obliquely in opposite directions from a horizontal plane to provide separate access from opposite sides of the system as well as providing an oblique plane of support unique for each side of the system that improves the field of view for an operator working from one side only or the opposite side only of the system. This arrangement enables each operator to operate independently of the other operator and also have better vision of what is being stored on the shelves to which his work load is assigned. Also, the provision of alternate transverse obliquity for adjacent shelves enables the space within a storage or work area to be used efficiently by enabling two operators to work simultaneously from opposite sides of the same storage area so that two workers can operate in a space that is only slightly larger than the space needed by a single operator working without this invention.